


A Cat in the Dark Has No Stripes

by sithiegoodness



Category: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24306943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sithiegoodness/pseuds/sithiegoodness
Summary: Toby has a rare early night.  She decides to plan some adult fun with her favorite King of Cats.  Things get delayed a bit when he comes home frustrated from running his Kingdom.  After some stress-relieving, Toby discovers something new about her betrothed.Set sometime between the ending of "The Winter Long" and the beginning of "Once Broken Faith."  Spoilers are very minor and are mainly about the characters and their relationship more than the actual plot of the books.
Relationships: October "Toby" Daye/Tybalt
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	A Cat in the Dark Has No Stripes

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own The October Daye Series or any of its characters. They do own a bit of me though. I love this series and love these characters. I don't get to write often and when I do it's usually just for me. I hope that you like it.

I had one of those rare nights where nothing tried to kill me, I didn’t have to bleed all over my good jeans, and I got home about an hour before sunrise. May and Jazz were experimenting with the air fryer that they bought from a midnight infomercial. Meaning I got to come home to slightly burnt but still nice and melty mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce. Assuming my official and unofficial squires hadn’t eaten them all already. 

My name is October Christine Daye, Hero of the Realm, Knight of Lost Words, in service to Sylvester Torquill of Shadowed Hills and I was going to steal fried cheese from teenage boys and get some fun ready for my fiancé.

Even with his Court to run, Tybalt usually managed to beat me to the house. The Court of Cats is composed of Cait Sidhe, mortal cats, and every Cait Sidhe changeling on the spectrum in between. Cait Sidhe and their mortal cousins were nocturnal, meaning that he could leave Court during most daylight hours without much consequence. 

Using my uncharacteristic early night to my advantage, I dressed myself in clothes that walked the line between what I knew he thought of as flattering on me and that I wouldn’t mind having ripped off my body, a corset would do just the trick. I brushed teeth and my hair, then lounged on my side of the bed, which would afford him a great view upon entering our bedroom. 

I had gone to the bathroom after I had recovered from the passing of the dawn. The ashes of last night’s magic were still in the air and on my tongue. I was just about to leave when I heard Tybalt talking to Cagney and Lacey, my Siamese cats, and Spike, our resident rose goblin. 

“I can’t command the Blodynbryd’s whelp, though it seems to have more regard for my desires than members of my own Court, but I demand that you both find sanctuary with one of the other denizens of this household. My subjects have had enough of my attention for one night.”

The cats stretched lazily, in no particular hurry to leave the warm spot of the bed that they had claimed while I freshened up. Spike, to his credit, rattled his thorns cheerily and trotted, tail high, out the door. When the cats didn’t seem inclined to follow, Tybalt let out a low warning growl. That seemed to get their attention. They finished their stretches and made their way out of the room.  
Tybalt nearly slammed the door in their wake and tossed himself on the bed fully clothed. I grabbed a robe from behind the bathroom door and quickly covered my attire before opening the door. 

“Rough night?” I asked as I secured the robe with its sash.

“You have no idea.”

He proceeded to give me the idea. He stood and paced back and forth at the foot of the bed as he explained what put him in his current mood. I sat back on the bed and listened to him go. He knew as well I that I couldn’t intervene with the dealings of his Court. He just was venting. Something that I could never have imagined a few years ago, but now it was fairly commonplace. Tybalt was a King, and a good one. His love for his people ran deep and he often grew frustrated in his efforts to lead a Kingdom of beings that did not want to be led. I was honored that he felt so comfortable talking with me, if possible, it made me love him even more.

He went on like that for most of the morning. Only sparing me a glance now and again to punctuate his words and tone with an expression. I interjected when appropriate, affirming his feelings and nodding my understanding. I didn’t know how to run a Kingdom, so my advice was limited. Though come to think of it, my hit-it-to-fix-it mentality worked fairly well with Cait Sidhe politics.   
Tybalt eventually rubbed his face with one hand as he let out a long and exasperated sigh. 

“Feel better?” I asked.

“As always little fish, your presence is a salve on my weary nerves.” He placed a hand on his hip and flicked the other in the air as if to shoo his frustrating thoughts of the night away. “Yes, I’m fine, thank you for listening.” His Thanks was no longer surprising. Thanks means fealty to the Fae, a duty owed by the person being thanked. We did owe a kind of fealty to one another; we were planning on dedicating our lives to each other. 

“Glad I could help.” I said as I literally disrobed. 

His eyes widened as the robe hit the floor. I stood there for a moment to let him take a good look at me. His eyes settled on the corset before he raised one eyebrow with a slow but wry smile coming to his lips. “I believe that I’m ready for bed.”

I could just see the tips of his incisors when he smiled at me like that. I cocked my own eyebrow. “So soon? Given the day that you had, I thought you might want to relieve some stress. Oh well, guess we’ll go to bed.” I pouted my lips sardonically, “You must be tired.” I went to grab my nightshirt from the end of the bed.

In one motion and a gust of pennyroyal and musk, Tybalt seemed to fold in on himself, leaving his clothes and a brown tabby cat in his place. The cat paused just long enough to take note of what must have been my confused expression before grabbing my nightshirt, jumping on the bed and transforming back into my, now naked, fiancé. He was chuckling holding the shirt in one hand, “Now now October. You know that ‘ready for bed’ can mean quite a number of things.”

I had recovered enough to bite my lip as I took the entirety of him in. I glanced at his discarded clothes as I said, “Thanks for saving me the time.” We were on each other in an instant. 

We, uh…lost track of time after that. 

At some point during the day, I rolled over. I could see from the edge of our blackout curtains that the sun was high and bright. With no immediate emergencies, I could go back to sleep. But my body wouldn’t have that. It took slight consciousness as a personal affront and decided to give me an emergency to fill the void. “Shit.” I whispered as I hurried to the bathroom, nearly tripping on my now ripped corset. 

After relieving myself, I couldn’t help but take a moment to appreciate the wonderful man sharing my bed. Not even in sleep could he be mistaken for anything but a cat. He had a predatory air to him that was clearly an unconscious one. His limbs were long and lean, he looked like he could wake and win a triathlon without so much as a warmup. His face was lax in his slumber. He looked so peaceful. 

As if somehow noticing my attention, he took in one long breath which came out in a raspy purr. Upon its completion, he rolled onto his side, showing me the expanse of his back. 

Whatever I had been thinking about the moment before was forgotten as I saw faint tabby stripes form on his skin. They were a few shades darker than the rest of his skin and undeniably feline. If he had not clearly been so relaxed, I would have worried that their appearance signaled some sort of discomfort. 

I got into bed to inspect them closer. I couldn’t help but trace, the lines on my lover’s body with gentle fingers. Apart from the coloring, they were indistinguishable from the rest of his skin. About halfway down his back I must have woken him because he took a sudden sharp intake of breath and his hand came over to hold mine.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

He chuckled, “What conclusion could you have expected from a beautiful woman touching my bare skin?”

I felt my cheeks redden. “I was just appreciating your markings.”

He lifted his head a bit, turning partway towards me, barely looking over his shoulder. “Have I shown my stripes?”

I had to laugh at the accidental pun, “More than once.” I said between breaths. “But this is the first time I’ve seen them on your skin.”

He let go of my hand so that he could roll over and face me. During that process, I noted that the stripes extended to the outskirts of his ribcage and across his chest. The bit of his legs that were not obscured by the bedsheets also had sparse tabby markings. His face was framed by them, too. The ones on his forehead lead seamlessly into the stripes of his hair. It was like I was seeing him for the first time, and maybe I was. He noticed my examination.

With half-shut eyes he explained, “All Cait Sidhe have some aspect of our feline selves with us when we shift to our bipedal form. As a King, I have a bit more control than the other members of my Court. When I was very young I learned that members of the Divided Courts saw my true skin as beastly. It was one of the first things I learned to hide from them. They remain hidden so long as I keep some focus.” He settled a bit into the bed. “I can remove them if you wish.”

As he said that, the markings began to fade. Before I could think I nearly shouted “No!” and tried to touch the receding stripes that were on his face. Fully awake now, he regarded me steadily without saying a word. Brows furrowed; his expression remained confused.

“They’re beautiful.” I explained. “I don’t want you to hide yourself from me. I love you as you are.”

I may have been mistaken, but I thought I saw a tear in his eye closest to the pillow. He placed his hand over mine which was still on the side of his face as his markings returned. A small smile came to his lips.  
“You know I was dreaming of you. That is probably why they appeared so suddenly.” His smile turned wry. “I feel most myself when I’m with you.” He brought my hand to his lips and gently kissed my fingers. “I love you October.” As he placed my hand on his chest, just over his heart. “This beats for you alone.”

I leaned over and kissed him, hand still on his bare chest. I broke the kiss when an errant thought crossed my mind, causing a smile to cross my face. I opened my eyes to see him smiling back at me curiosity evident on his face. “You know what this means don’t you?”

“What?” he said with a modicum of concern finding its way back to his face.

I quickly moved to straddle him. He looked at me with admiration. I would move continents to have him look at me that way for the rest of my life.

I slowly leaned forward while gently tracing a line from just below his navel and up his torso. “I thought I knew every inch of you.” When my finger reached under his chin, my thumb joined so that I could tilt his head slightly upwards to meet my waiting lips. We kissed. A deep and inviting kiss that I do not know how I ever existed without. 

When I broke the kiss and opened my eyes mere inches from his face, I could see the arousal in his cat-slit eyes, feel a hungry rumble starting in his chest, and feel encouragement from…the rest of his body.   
I put my lips next to his ear. Lowering my voice to the closest approximation of a purr that my non-feline vocal cords could produce, I said “I need to reacquaint myself.” 

When I came back up to look at him once again, his smile was wicked. He moved with inhuman speed, the next thing I knew, he was on top of me, kissing my body from my neck to the base of my torso, seeming to mirror the line I had drawn on his skin moments before. I let out a breathy laugh as we began an encore performance of that morning’s…festivities. 

I think I traced every stripe on his body that day as his hands and lips managed to map my own skin in turn. 

He was mine. I was his. Nothing would change that.


End file.
